Yeah, it's pretty hard to separate signal from noise on "prepping". Most of them seem to think total economic collapse is imminent... And most of the prepping is about guns... Good luck eating your gun powder.

That said, I do keep a backpack in the truck that has the basics of what I'd need to get home from anywhere I'm likely to drive (stove, couple extra layers of clothes, food, metal water bottle, map, compass, bic lighter, etc.). My pack weighs about 8 pounds. Most of the "preppers" have 100 pound rucks w/ 400 rounds of ammo, bolt cutters, night vision goggles, gas mask, and all kinds of other crazy stuff. They've clearly not done a lot of backpacking, or probably even camping.